Siegel, Sabien plan spontaneity

The time before last that Corky Siegel and Randy Sabien played together, the duo rehearsed before the concert.

Siegel now sees the error of their ways and pledges he and Sabien will not rehearse before SundayÂ?s concert at the Acorn Theater in Three Oaks, just as they didnÂ?t a week ago.

The blues pianist and harmonica player simply believes he and the violinist are better when they play off the cuff.

Â?ItÂ?s very spontaneous in the improvisation area and the taking-advantage-of-the-moment area,Â? Siegel says by telephone from his home in Chicago. Â?HeÂ?s a really good accompanist, not so much as a background accompanist but somebody whoÂ?s really involved in the spontaneity of it, so things tend to go to different places from night to night, and we donÂ?t play a lot together so itÂ?s always fresh for us.Â?

Part of that spontaneity, Sabien says, comes from SiegelÂ?s personality.

Â?ItÂ?s a free-wheelinÂ? blues extravaganza,Â? Sabien says by telephone from MichiganÂ?s Upper Peninsula, where he was playing a private party. Â?ItÂ?s a circus because heÂ?s very clever and he likes to mess with you. HeÂ?s a trickster, a jokester on stage, and things happen.Â?

The humor, Sabien says, however, never trumps the music.

Â?CorkyÂ?s a very deep thinker, and heÂ?s a very deep player,Â? he says. Â?HeÂ?s playing an essentially simple form, but heÂ?s not playing shallow ideas. ItÂ?s deep playing in a very simple form, so on the surface, anybody can play the 12-bar blues. How do you make it mean something to people? HeÂ?s an expert at that.Â?

Siegel rose to prominence as a blues musician as a member of the Siegel-Schwall Blues Band from 1964-74 and then as a solo artist into the early Â?80s. Since the late Â?80s, Siegel has focused most of his unbridled energy on his Chamber Blues works, blues-classical pieces written for string quartet, percussion, and SiegelÂ?s piano and harmonica.

In 2002 and 2004, Sabien performed with Chamber Blues in South Bend as the ensembleÂ?s guest soloist.

A native of Rockford, Ill., who now lives in Wisconsin, Sabien set out to play drums in the fourth grade, but the orchestra teacher assigned him to violin because he needed another string player.

Sabien progressed on the instrument, studying classical music, but eventually gravitated to playing jazz. In 1978, he founded the Berklee College of MusicÂ?s string department, a year after enrolling at the Boston music school known for its jazz curriculum.

Â?Mainly, heÂ?s a swing violin player, but versatile,Â? Siegel says. Â?ThereÂ?s one piece that definitely has a little old-style jazz flavor to it. He doesnÂ?t play that much swing. ItÂ?s in there, itÂ?s hidden in there. ThereÂ?s one song where thereÂ?s a lot of outright jazz licks, and thereÂ?s one tune that could be filled with jazz licks, but he approaches it almost as reggae.Â?

Their collaborations, Sabien says, also have effected his playing as a solo artist with his own jazz band.

Â?My latest recording, I overdubbed some violin parts,Â? he says about Â?Rhythm and Bows.Â? Â?After playing with Chamber Blues, I thought, Â?If Corky Siegel can write string parts, I can write string parts.Â? My latest jazz band has three violins in it, and I use them like three horns.Â?

Although most of SundayÂ?s set list will come from SiegelÂ?s solo and Siegel-Schwall catalogues, Sabien will play at least one solo piece, and heÂ?s brought a Bob Wills fiddle piece to the duo, too.

Â?I sing a 12-bar blues shuffle at the piano, and that allows Corky to have some piano support under his harmonica playing,Â? Sabien says. Â?We do some four-hands boogie-woogie. Â? We play George GershwinÂ?s Â?Summertime.Â? I get him a little out of the blues realm into some other styles, which obviously, he can do.Â?

For Sabien, who usually plays with a jazz band or as a guest soloist with orchestras or Chamber Blues, his shows with Siegel are Â?very pared down and exposedÂ? by comparison.

He and Siegel, however, support each other onstage in the absence of other musicians.

Â?I do a lot of things on the violin that normally are supplied by the rhythm section, so I do a lot of chordal support and rhythmic support, a lot of things you donÂ?t associate with the violin,Â? Sabien says. Â?I play a guitar part on the violin while Corky solos. Then he does the same thing for me on the harmonica by playing a lot of rhythm rather than melody, so you hear all the things you would hear with a blues band, but itÂ?s just these two instruments.Â?